Main navigation

The Girl in the Mirror

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

Even though mirrors have existed since almost the beginning of civilization, the modern mirror, the silvered-glass mirror, which is extensively used today throughout the world was invented almost 200 years ago in Germany.

The ubiquitousness of mirrors and reflective surfaces in our, so called, “modern civilization” has made that we perceive our reflection on mirrors as normal, however, the psychological effect of mirrors is probably a more complex topic.

For example, schizophrenics can’t recognize themselves in a mirror, mirror-writing — that is recognized as the writing of letters, words, or sentences in reverse direction, in such a way that reflected in a mirror they would look normal — is notably frequent in young children and in brain-damaged adults. Following the same logic, would it be possible to mentally get confused and not be able to differentiate between you and your image reflected in the mirror? Is there any mental state in which this would be possible?

I think exploring this idea from the perspective of arts can be an interesting project, I mean trying to explore all these psychological effects but from an aesthetic, visual perspective.

Because all the above, I started creating a new series about mirror reflections. As you can probably infer from this first image of the series, it will also include some partial nudity as another component, or another layer to be read as part of the images.

I do appreciate your comments and suggestions. If you are interested in silver gelatin limited edition prints of my photos, please don’t hesitate to contact me to enrique.pelaez.houston@gmail.com

Also, if you’re interested in receiving more information regarding the making of my images, as well as general information about fine art photography, please subscribe to my blog to receive automatic notifications every time I publish a new post.